Helsinki, Finland’s Esplanade Park is the city’s grand natural stage, a central urban boulevard park that is at the heart of the city’s pedestrian, recreational and shopping activity. So where’s the best seat in the house to watch it all? That would be Cafe Strindberg.

Notice how its cafe tables and seats are line up theater style so you can relish your espresso or smoothie, soak up the sunshine, and sit and enjoy the live ‘performing arts’ that is people watching. It’s a simple sign that

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It’s a 180-degree trend reversal in Japan, where emerging generations no longer find having a car as relevant to their daily lives. Automakers even have a name for it, “kuruma banare,“ or “demotorization”. No more car ownership as status symbol, where auto executives fear the nation’s love affair with the automobile is ending.

“Young people’s interest is shifting from cars to communication tools like personal computers, mobile phones and services,“ says Yoichiro Ichimaru of Toyota.

From a

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Louisiana’s Cultural Districts Program has set the bar for government policy innovation in terms of both identifying a cultural district, then providing incentives for it. It’s the first step towards growing a creative economy, but what could the next step be?

First step:
1. Identify cultural products districts using internal criteria (Louisiana’s state program)
2. Local and state sales taxes exemptions on the sale of original artworks (Louisiana’s state program)
3. Income and corporate tax

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Louisiana is one of the few states that has a very clear program on establishing natural cultural districts for creatives. In 2007, the state legislature approved the Louisiana Cultural Districts Program, also referred to as Cultural Products Districts because of the program’s emphasis on tangible products. As is stated on the state’s website, “The primary goal of the Cultural Districts program is revitalizing communities by creating hubs of cultural activity.“

So what is the state offering?

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The previous entry looked at how creative skills + cultural products = creative economy, but where does it all happen? Of course, the actual production occurs digitally via computers and materially in factories, but since people make up a system, how do the entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, financiers, filmmakers, programmers, designers, etc. etc. etc. establish the relationships to make it all happen?

As creatives know, and as Elizabeth Currid states in her book, The Warhol Economy, much of

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The creative economy is often ineffectively defined by the creative skills/talent: media, film, design, music, visual art, etc. However, those are arguably just the means, and what’s overlooked are the cultural products that result from a convergence of those creative skills. Now that’s what the creative economy is about.

To understand in greater detail how creatives with talent transform their skills into cultural products that grow an economy, you’ll want to read Elizabeth Currid’s The

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If there’s one thing I’m glad to see, it’s not just nonprofits or membership groups working with for-profits to execute their vision, but green organizations working with developers to build attainably-priced green housing.

It started with Live Green, a green-oriented membership organization based on providing green business discounts to its members, and Taurus Development Group, a woman-run real estate development firm with a twenty-year ecological track record. Both of these entities,

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